Karyn Lewis, PhD
Vice President of Research and Policy Partnerships
Karyn Lewis is Vice President of Research and Policy Partnerships at NWEA, where she leads a team dedicated to generating actionable, policy-relevant research that directly addresses critical challenges in K–12 education. Her team's work is strategically focused on bridging the gap between rigorous research and practical educational improvements, ensuring that insights translate into meaningful strategies for educators, policymakers, and school leaders.
Prior to joining NWEA, she was a senior researcher at Education Northwest/REL Northwest where she led a diverse portfolio of applied research, technical assistance, and evaluation projects. Dr. Lewis is a former Data Fellow with the Strategic Data Project at the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research. She completed a National Science Foundation funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder and earned a PhD from the University of Oregon in social psychology.
Publications by Karyn Lewis
Technical Brief – COVID’s impact on science achievement: Trends from 2019 through 2024
This is the accompanying technical brief to the new report (Covid’s impact on science achievement: Trends from 2019 through 2024) that examines the pandemic’s impacts on academic achievement and gain in Science and continues ongoing research by NWEA® analyzing the degree to which the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated school closures, influenced student learning.
Products: MAP Growth
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity, Growth
COVID’s impact on science achievement: Trends from 2019 through 2024
This new report examines the pandemic’s impacts on academic achievement and gain in Science and continues ongoing research by NWEA® analyzing the degree to which the COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated school closures, influenced student learning.
Products: MAP Growth
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity, Growth
NWEA research report examining the impacts of the pandemic’s disruptions to learning and the status of academic recovery. This report features data from the 2023-24 academic year and underscores that unfinished learning continues to be a challenge due to lower achievement gains compared to pre-pandemic trends. This report is part of series tracking the on-going impacts.
Products: MAP Growth
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity, Growth
NWEA research report examining the impacts of the pandemic’s disruptions to learning and the status of academic recovery. This report features data from the 2023-24 academic year and underscores that unfinished learning continues to be a challenge due to lower achievement gains compared to pre-pandemic trends. This report is part of series tracking the on-going impacts.
Products: MAP Growth
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity, Growth
Effective summer programs: Practical guidance for district leaders
This report dives into the research on summer programs, their implementation and design, as well as the efficacy of those programs for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes. It also provides recommendations for district leaders to use as a framework for planning and implementing effective summer programming.
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Growth, Guidance, Seasonal learning patterns & summer loss
Education’s long COVID: 2022–23 achievement data reveal stalled progress toward pandemic recovery
New research shows progress toward academic recovery stalled in 2022-23. This research brief covers data from 6.7 million US students examining academic gains relative to pre-pandemic years as well as tracking the gap in achievement between COVID year student groups compared to their pre-pandemic peers.
Products: MAP Growth
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity
Technical appendix: 2022-23 achievement data reveal stalled progress toward pandemic recovery
The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and describe the sample and methods used in the research in Education’s long COVID: 2022-23 achievement data reveal stalled progress toward pandemic recovery report.
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity
